Exercise

These stories from lady spectators remind me of tactics used on more than one occasion by one of the members of our club.

We played pretty serious league stuff on Saturdays and some fair class but not so serious friendlies on Sundays. This guy was vice-captain and would take over the captaincy half a dozen times or so for the Sunday games.

He was a bit of a poser with his sports cars and a succession of young ladies (we may have had more than one of those!) but he invented a new tactic that could be used in either attack or defence. When he thougt that the occasion called for it he'd get this week's girlfriend to change into a skimpy bikini and lay along the boundary, ostensibly reading a book, in the sightline of whoever he wanted to distract. It worked more than once.
 
Originally posted by BrianH@Jul 24 2006, 10:54 AM

He was a bit of a poser with his sports cars and a succession of young ladies (we may have had more than one of those!) but he invented a new tactic that could be used in either attack or defence. When he thougt that the occasion called for it he'd get this week's girlfriend to change into a skimpy bikini and lay along the boundary, ostensibly reading a book, in the sightline of whoever he wanted to distract. It worked more than once.
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Are you sure you are describing someone else, Brian? :)
 
A fitness coach to get them primed to run 200 sprinted yards in about 4 hours on the off-chance that they get a century.

I have seen Darren Lehman and Shane Warne play cricket for the best team in the world.

I have run a marathon and numerous 10k runs in the last year or so, and I am not nearly the fittest on our team.

Incidentally, I would say that the average skill levels in county cricket are massively higher than on my team.
 
At the professional level, a healthy adequacy level of fitness is advantageous and, with occasional exceptions, usually reached. At sub-professional level the ability to stand and move without the deployment of mechanical aids is probably sufficient.
 
I am sure if a doctor wanted someone to improve their fitness levels, he/she wouldn't automatically choose cricket as a way of doing this. That said, I am sure a doctor would admit it was better than doing no exercise at all.

If people play and enjoy the sport, and feel they are fitter for it that's fine as many hundreds of thousands of people clearly do. There are a few on here that given the option of playing a game of cricket they would possibly prefer to watch paint dry - and probably get just as much exercise doing that. :)
 
A bit off topic, but I watched a bit of the Kilkenny/Galway hurling the other day and it occurred to me at the time that maybe it is a sport some of the cricketers should try. One handed catches with a hurley in one hand, outjumping an opponent with an elbow in your neck and a lump of wood smacked against your catching arm. An outfield catch in cricket would be a piece of piss when you've mastered that.
 
Originally posted by Melendez@Jul 24 2006, 01:08 PM
At sub-professional level the ability to stand and move without the deployment of mechanical aids is probably sufficient.
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Brilliant, Mel!! :lol: :lol:
 
I play both football and cricket and can state without fear or favour that football is by far the most demanding. I am talking fitness levels not which body part can take the greates pressure.
 
I should imagine fast bowling puts a vast amount of pressure on various parts of the body.

My Dad broke his little finger twice playing cricket (not in the same game) and never played again. Trying to catch a fast moving cricket ball after drinking a few beers down the pub earlier is evidently not to be recomended! :what:

The nice thing about cricket is it is extremely social. My Grandparent's owned the village pub, and it was always the hot topic of conversation, before and after every game. After my Grandad died, the two villages next to each other played for an annual cup as he adored his cricket. Fortunately, it didn't pass via my parent's genes to me although my late Mum use to watch cricket on the telly - and absolutely loved it! B)
 
Mark - I know someone who opened a car door whilst parked into which a cyclist went head first, and the driver was prosecuted for driving without due care and attention, so I would think the blame would be entirely on the driver/passenger. Shouldn't have stopped to let someone out on a roundabout either. Hope you are okay.

Step is a really good form of exercise - the effect of gravity means each step up is the equivalent of 6 times your body weight, and it burns more fat than aerobics to music.
 
Tetley surely it depends on what you are doing ? Test match cricket for example is very different to playing 40 overs on a Sunday afternoon whilst all football matches are 90 minutes .

The Inzaman Al Haq's of this world are a rarity now in cricket . It remains true that someone with fantastic hand and eye co-ordination can still excel . It does not mean that cricket is not a strenuous game .
 
Cricket obviously places demands on the body and mind.....but it has to be put in context. Some of the earlier comments on here about it above all other sports were way off.
 
I think the only comments were that it is more stressful on particular parts of the body, Galileo. That has yet to be refuted.
 
I play cricket in the summer and up until last year played hockey in the winter, both to a high standard. Believe me bowling forty overs in a weekend and possibly batting for a couple of hours or more does keep you fit, but as with anything it is all relative. In the summer I am fitter for playing cricket than I would be by doing nothing at all, but at the end of the cricket season I am normally about a stone heavier than I am at the end of the hockey season.

I hate to think what's going to happen now I've retired from hockey, because by my reckoning if I put on a stone every cricket season from now on I'll be twenty two and half stone in ten years time!!!
 
Originally posted by PDJ@Jul 24 2006, 01:48 PM
I think the only comments were that it is more stressful on particular parts of the body, Galileo. That has yet to be refuted.
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Well, overbruvv, apart from calling me stupid and uninformed and accusing me about having an agenda against a sport that I really like said:

Cricket provides vigorous exercise for all players
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And Ardross said:

Cricket is a very physical sport and fitness is now at a premium
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Here are some sports that I reckon put more pressure on a particular part of the body:

Javelin throwing
Gymnastics
Weightlifting


But, unlike cricket two of these sports require high levels of fitness to allow one to compete at the highest level (weightlifting requires strength, not fitness).

Sure, being fit helps in cricket, but to think like the two boys above think is perplexing.
 
I agree with most of what you say but javelin throwing? Surely that is the same as fast bowling except a fast bowler goes through the motion 50+ times in a day whereas the javelin thrower will only do it 3/6 times.
 
I should have hoped that it was obvious that i was talking about professional cricket. Fitness is now at a premium . Outside of very special cases like Inzaman , the majority of cricketers are very fit. .

I am not saying that it is the most punishing , or requires the highest level of fitness of all sports but it takes its toll on the body.

What I find perplexing is that someone who is generally very well informed says something like " Cricket a sport? Just about. But it is hardly vigorous exercise."

Fair comment about a group of 50 year olds ambling about on a village green but not about the professional game.
 
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